


Of Dislocated Shoulders and Embarrassing Photos... Again!

by SabbyStarlight



Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Gen, Hurt Jack, Manly snuggles, Whump, canon typical injury, hurt comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:20:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27332587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SabbyStarlight/pseuds/SabbyStarlight
Summary: Four years ago today I posted my very first MacGyver fic.And what better way to celebrate than doing a reboot of the fic that started it all?The same fic, but it's Jack's turn this time.
Comments: 9
Kudos: 41





	Of Dislocated Shoulders and Embarrassing Photos... Again!

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Of Dislocated Shoulders and Embarrassing Photos](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8443369) by [SabbyStarlight](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SabbyStarlight/pseuds/SabbyStarlight). 



> Surprise!!! Bet you didn't think you'd see me popping up again so soon! But today isn't just the first day of November, marking the official end of last month's crazy ride, but it's actually the fourth anniversary of me posting my very first MacGyver fic. Allllllllll the way back in 2016. I never could have expected this fandom to inspire as many fics as it has, let alone lead me to making some of the most amazing friendships through our mutual love-and sometimes hatred-of this show. I was feeling a little nostalgic about it all so I went back and revisited that very first fic a little while ago and decided that if I wasn't completely burnt out of writing after surviving Whumptober, it would be super fun to do a little reboot of my own, despite Jack insisting that reboots never work, and flip it. Same premise of the fic, just swapping roles around a little. (Literally, it's the exact same fic, just Jack instead of Mac.) Enjoy!

Riley winced in sympathy as the car hit another bump. Her eyes automatically went to the front seat, trying to catch Jack’s eyes in the rearview mirror, but his were locked, steadfast, on the curving dirt road in front of them. Focused and determined, he wasn't taking his eyes off the road, no matter what. 

Mac, sitting tense in the passenger seat, noticed her concern and turned his head, just enough to meet her gaze. He offered up a small shrug, not enough to divert Jack's attention to the move, in a silent "What am I supposed to do?" From her place in the middle of the back seat, Riley had a perfect view of the two men in the front of the car. She was less than two feet away from Jack's injured shoulder and yet there was nothing she could do to help him.

Not that him being too stubborn to allow one of them to climb behind the wheel and drive them to their exfil point was doing himself any favors. 

At first glance, you wouldn’t be able to tell there was anything wrong with him, which he had used to his advantage. No visible cuts or scrapes, bullet holes, or the usual signs of torture that accompany their job. He had done his best to keep both of them from ever realizing he was hurt, but sitting behind him on the way to the airport, Riley could see the way that his left shoulder sloped downward and seemed slightly pushed forward. Dislocated, Mac had said with a heavy sigh after Jack had twisted wrong and couldn't mask a gasp of pain at the movement, prompting Mac to check him over. 

More concerning to Riley than the actual injury had been the way Mac didn't seem even slightly surprised at his findings. 

Jack maneuvered the car, going way faster than he probably should have been, around a sharp curve, not knowing about the deep rut in the road just around the bend. The car jolted as it crossed the shallow bump and Jack let out a string of curse words under his breath as his shoulder was jostled. 

“Jack?” Riley asked hesitantly once the car was back on a stable stretch of road. He didn’t answer. She knew Jack had his qualms about passengers bothering the person driving, going all the way back to when she was young and he was trying to convince her that he sold bathroom tiles for a living. He would tense on instinct if her mom reached over to adjust the air conditioning levels, let alone if she mentioned upping the speed of the windshield wipers or asked if he hadn't spent quite enough time pausing at a stop sign. Jack drove, and if you were going to be in the car you weren't going to complain about how he was driving. And it worked, Riley had to admit. He had always gotten them where they were going on time and unharmed. Letting him drive with a dislocated shoulder though, that was new. It was making her nervous even though he was hurting and the last thing she wanted to do was make the situation worse.

"Mac?" She asked hesitantly, shifting tactics. She and Jack were still on rocky terms, carefully circling one another, trying to find a way to repair their relationship and form a new one as coworkers at the same time. Mac though, Jack and Mac moved as two halves of one whole. If anyone was going to get through to him, it would be Mac. 

Jack answered for him, sucking in a shallow breath before grating out the words "I'm fine." 

He must have realized how unconvincing he sounded, because he tried again, voice softening back into what she always thought of as her Jack's voice instead of super-spy Jack's. "Really, darlin'. I've had worse." 

"He has," Mac agreed with a sad smile. "Doesn't mean I like this any more than she does though. We're still about half an hour away from the airport. You know I don't mind popping in back into alignment for you, it's far from the first time, but are you sure you want to wait until we're in the air before we do it?" 

The fact that Mac knew how to reset a dislocated shoulder didn't surprise Riley. Mac knew, she was beginning to realize, at least a little about literally everything. And she was glad he knew what he was doing because there was no way she would be any help with something like that. But it was the fact that it seemed to be a recurring problem was what stuck out in her mind. For all the goodnatured jokes about Jack's age, she hadn't really stopped to consider the toll spending years running head first into danger to save the world would take on a person's body. 

"Sure, I'd like to have it take care of now," Jack continued, shrugging his good shoulder. "But I don't got a choice." 

“Of course you have a choice,” Mac insisted. “Pull the car over up there in that wide spot, we pop it back in, back on the road in twenty minutes.” 

“Then that’s twenty minutes wasted,” Jack answered. “We have to get that hard drive back home as soon as we can. Thornton was expecting us to just email it to her. It’s already going to be like, nine hours late since we couldn’t upload it. And she already hates me enough as it is.”

“I could drive,” Riley suggested from the backseat. “Move both of you back here, Mac does whatever he has to do to your shoulder and we keep going. That way you'll already be fixed up by the time we get to the airport.”

"It's not that easy," Mac sighed, continuing when he picked up on her confusion. "There's not much room back there and it doesn’t go like you see in the movies. You have to have a fairly open space so there's enough room to properly rotate the arm back into place, otherwise, you could end up doing more damage." 

"And we don't want that," Jack interjected. "So I'm gonna keep drivin', the two of you are gonna sit there and be happy about it, and all three of us are gonna cross our fingers and hope we make it back to the airport without any more incidents. 

Somehow, it worked. 

The road smoothed out when they neared the airport and as the car whipped into the parking lot they all let out a sigh of relief knowing that they had made it to safety. Mac jumped out of the car first, calling to the pilot standing next to their awaiting plane and telling him to be ready for take-off as soon as they boarded.

"Get the bags," He said gently to Riley, recognizing the look of needing to do something to help on her face as one he saw on himself in the mirror far too often. "I'll get him." 

She knew she wasn't supposed to overhear the soft reassurances Mac was spewing as he ignored Jack's protesting hands and helped him out of the car, so she pretended like she didn't hear a thing and kept going. By the time her arms were loaded up with their three small duffel bags, Jack was standing on his own two feet, looking a little paler than usual, but determined non the less. 

"You want a hand to make it to the plane?" Mac offered. 

Jack scowled. "Screwed up my shoulder, kid. Not my legs." It was all the provocation he needed to spur him into moving, stiffly, towards the plane. 

Riley took it upon herself to dart ahead of the two men, quickly making her way across the asphalt to board the plane first. Once she reached the steps leading to the door, the pilot, who was standing by ready to lock up and take off, helped her load the bags. Upon seeing the two men slowly but surely making their way towards him, he turned to Riley and said “There’s a first aid kit in the overhead storage compartment, looks like you’re gonna need it.”

When Jack finally made it onto the plane, the first aid kit was already open, waiting by the seat closest to the door. "Coat off first," Mac stopped him with a hand on his good shoulder before Jack had a chance to drop into the seat. With a heavy sigh, Jack shook his good arm out of its leather sleeve and allowed Mac to help him slowly tug the other half off his injured shoulder. Then, as if they had practiced the move a million times before, Mac took the coat in the hand that wasn’t gently lowering his partner into the plane seat and tossed it, without even looking in her general direction, perfectly into Riley’s surprised arms.

“Is there anything I can do?” She asked softly once the plane was in the air and Jack was safely seated, wanting to help but not sure how.

Mac shook his head no as he dropped to his knees and began digging through the huge first aid kit, knowing the last thing Jack wanted was more of an audience. Thinking it was probably better not to press the issue, she moved over to the opposite side of the small private plane. Out of the way, but just close enough if they needed her.

"Pain meds," Mac said softly, rattling the small bottle in his hand. When Jack made no more to accept them, Mac took matters into his own hands, literally, prying Jack's closed fist open and placing two of the small white pills inside. "Yes, they're the strong ones. Yes, I know you hate them. No, I don't care. Take them or I make you take them. That’s the only choice you’re getting here." 

Jack dry swallowed the pills with a glare. 

Still grimacing at the bitter taste they left in his mouth, Jack leaned forward, bracing his good elbow on his knee. "Go on. Get it over with." 

Mac sat back on his haunches, leaning away when Jack leaned forward. "You not want to at least give those pills a chance to work before we start?" 

"They ain't gonna touch the pain of you popping it back in. You know that." Jack took a breath, bracing himself. "Do it. And just so you know, I have every intention of passing out not long after and sleeping the rest of the way home." 

It was Mac's turn to sigh. "You sure?" 

The two men locked eyes and though neither spoke a word, Riley was sure that an entire conversation was shared that only those two would understand. Eventually,Mac gave a small nod and stood up.

“I don’t have to warn you that this is gonna suck, right?” He asked. "You've been through this enough times that you know?" 

"Yeah, but I trust you, kid," Jack offered up a reassuring smile. "That shoulder might hurt me but you're not gonna." 

Looking at the two men Riley wasn’t sure whose face was showing more pain. She knew that even though he was helping his partner, the fact that he had to hurt him more to do so wasn't something Mac was okay with. He had built an entire brand around helping instead of hurting, finding nonviolent ways to solve problems. But he squared his shoulders, took a breath, and placed one hand on Jack’s good shoulder, while the other gripped the elbow of his partner’s injured arm.

“Ready?” He asked softly.

Jack nodded and huffed a series of shaky breaths, trying to psych himself up for the pain to come. Riley closed her eyes, not needing the mental image of the joint snapping back into place haunting her already frequent nightmares.

“On three," Mac warned. "One… two... three.” 

He didn't move on three like he said he was going to, though Jack flinched automatically. Mac waited until that initial reaction had passed before forcing Jack's arm up and forward until a sickening pop echoed throughout the jet and Jack yelped. 

Riley cringed, eyes opening, needing to check on them for herself. Mac, somehow, had managed to stay stoic through the ordeal, methodically pulling Jack's eyes this way and that, checking the integrity of the joint despite the way Jack had collapsed forward, panting with his forehead resting against Mac's stomach. 

"Hey, Riles?" Mac asked softly, voice breaking through the strange spell that had fallen over the jet's interior. He nodded for her to come closer. "I think there's a sling in the med kit over here, can you find it for me?" Finally determining that Jack's shoulder was as good as it was going to get, he released it, letting his hand come to rest at the back of Jack's neck. 

She scrambled out of her seat and to the side of Jack's in record time, digging through the various medical supplies until she found what Mac was talking about. She tore through the plastic wrapping, tossing it aside, and unfolded the sling before handing it over.

"Hey, big guy," Mac said softly, rubbing a gentle hand up and down Jack's back for a moment. "I know moving is probably the absolute last thing you feel like doing right now, but if you sit up I can get this sling Riley found us on you. Keep that arm from jostling around too much." 

Jack nodded slowly, his face still buried in Mac's shirt, and used his good arm to begin pushing himself to sit up. Mac jumped in to help, moving him slowly, until he was sitting upright again before gently maneuvering Jack's arm into the sling, ignoring the way his partner winced at every slight movement. They both let out a sigh of relief once the sling was securely strapped in place, knowing that the worst of the pain was officially over.

“Thank’s Riley,” Jack said, looking up and giving her a shaky smile, acknowledging her for the first time since the car ride. He was starting to look a little better, starting to return to his usual self, but the exhaustion and traces of pain were still evident on his face. "Sorry you had to see all that go down." 

"I'm sorry you had to live it," She returned his smile with one of her own. "Although it doesn't really look like that was the first time? Like, at all?" 

"Not even close," Mac confirmed with a shake of his head. "He throws that shoulder out at least once a year. I keep telling him he needs to go get it fixed right but-" 

"But it's no big deal," Jack cut his rant off with a warning glare, knowing that if he let him keep going he would have not one, but two kids pushing him towards what would only be a couple of months off roster but couldn't help but feel like early retirement. "And as long as we can keep fixin' it, I'm fine. No big deal." 

Mac went to work repacking the medical kit but he looked up at her for a quick moment, slightly shaking his head to let her know it wasn't worth wasting her time trying to argue about it. "I'm going to go email Thornton, explain why we're running so late," She said. "And I won't say anything about you getting hurt," She assured before Jack had a chance to ask. "Though I don't really see how you think you're going to be able to hide it from her. We're still about six hours away from home, you might as well go ahead and crash before those pills knock you on your ass."

She kept a close eye on them, even as she began typing out her post-mission report. The first time she looked up, Mac had taken the seat next to Jack and by the second time, Jack had slumped down enough that his head was resting on Mac's shoulder. She wasn't sure that he was actually asleep, but he was at least resting, which was progress. By the time she was done with her report, it appeared that they were both asleep. As quietly as she could she closed her laptop and left her seat, crossing the aisle, unable to stop herself from pulling out her phone and snapping a quick photo of the two of them. 

"You better not ever let him find out that you took that," Mac whispered with a smile, not even bothering to open his eyes, clearly not as asleep as she had thought he was. 

"Sorry," She grinned, slipping her phone back into her pocket. Not sorry enough to delete it, though.

"It's okay," Mac shifted, just enough that he had a better view of his sleeping partner when he cracked one eye open. 

"Is he going to be?" Riley asked, still not comfortable with the idea of improvised medical care. "Okay, I mean?" 

"It's Jack," Mac shrugged the shoulder that wasn't currently serving as a pillow. "He wouldn't tell us if he wasn't. So we do what we can, out stubborn him only when we really have to, and hope for the best. It's worked so far." 

Riley nodded. She didn't like it, and probably never would, but it was an answer that at least made sense and she had learned fairly early on in life that sometimes she was going to have to be satisfied with not always getting the answers she wanted. This new career was only enforcing that. "Go back to sleep," She offered. "I promise not to take any more pictures." 

Mac smiled, eyes closing once again as he adjusted the arm that had somehow slipped behind Jack's shoulders, keeping him close. 

She hadn't even had a chance to power her computer back up before Mac's hushed voice broke the silence again. "Hey, Riles?" 

"Yeah?" 

"Send me that pic, when we land?" 

She grinned. "You got it." It didn't have to happen very often, usually, the roles were reversed and it was Jack finding himself taking care of his injured partner. She had already seen it happen far too many times in the few months she had been working with them, but when it was Jack's turn to be the one left hurting, Mac was more than capable to step up and adapt. From dislocated shoulders to embarrassing pictures, Mac had Jack's back when he needed him to, and really, that was all you could ever ask for in a partner.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for indulging me and letting me spend the last four years here, as part of a really amazing little found family of our own. 


End file.
